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The Upside or Downside? Of Unrequited!

The Upside of Unrequited. By: Becky Albertalli

SUMMARY

Mental note before we start Molly has never dated, kissed, or hardly even talked to a guy before she is a heavy set girl although she is not obese she is just curvy as I would call her but to Molly she is fat and unattractive. So she doesn’t do guys she does crushes 27 to be exact. So just keep that in mind while reading the summary!

The story starts out with Molly Peskin-Suso and her twin sister Cassie with their friend Olivia all at a party when they met a girl name Mina and her guy friends named Max and Will. They all leave together to catch the Metro before it closes down when Cassie gets Mina’s number(YES! cassie is gay). The next morning is Molly’s first day of work when Cassie tells her that she and Mina are going to hook Molly and Will up together, which Molly finds to be a devastating idea due to the fact that she does not date guys much less talk to them. Molly arrives to work to find out her co-worker is a guy named Reid and she will be spending a lot of time with him while at work which she at first finds terrifying until she starts to notice Reid is just Reid and she doesn’t really see him as a guy she sees him for who he is. When Mina and Cassie go to call it official and start dating Molly starts to fall behind, while Mina and Cassie are having a blast and Molly is being forced to tag along with them while Will is nice and small talks with Molly, Max on the other hand is just there with his friends.

Once Cassie and Mina start to get more intimate Molly starts to notice the distance with Cassie they always tell each other everything but Cassie wasn’t telling her anything about how her and Mina were doing but she had no time to focus on that right now because Gay marriage was now legal as of today and Molly had a wedding to plan because her two mothers had just announced that they were finally going to get married after waiting years.( Also Molly and Cassie and their little brother Xavier are all donor sperm babies)

Once back at work Molly starts to get closer to Reid and they go to the store together and she starts to notice that she can tell him things she would never tell another boy. She starts to flirt with Reid without realizing it and she even promises him cookie dough, but when Grandma comes down she starts to talk to Molly once again about her weight and how she should try and lose some and not eat so much then maybe she can even get a boyfriend, which only brings up memories of Molly being called fat in seventh and eighth grade. Cassie has yet to give up on the fact that Will and Molly must date each other because it would just be too perfect Mina’s best friend dating Molly, Cassie’s best friend and soon she has roped in Abby(Cassie and Molly’s cousin and best friend) and Oliva to try and talk Molly into giving it a shot.

Molly is back to hanging out with Cassie, Mina and Will but this time there is alcohol and Molly has too much to drink and Olivia takes her home, back at home Cassie has a fight with Nadien(One of her moms) and ends up telling Molly she would rather hang out with Mina than her. At work Molly tells Reid that she thinks he is pretty cool and they end up getting soaking wet in the rain on the way home and just when Molly was about to let herself fall Cassie opened the door to the house and they both left it there.

SPOILERS BELOW! IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE END!!!

SKIP TO THE REVIEW

The next day Reid texted Molly to see if she wanted to go to a comic con with him and his friend but she told him no she was going to a party with Cassie and Mina, the party was full of teens with no parents and alcohol, a shady guy was trying to hit on Molly when Will stepped in to save her and said that they were dating after another fight with Cassie and making up the next morning they go to see Olivia who has been dumped by her boyfriend. That is when the girls hatch the plan of a sleep over with Reid, Will, Max, Olivia, and Mina, while at the sleep other Will seems like he is into Molly and clings to her while Reid watches them and the way they act. When Molly wakes up she finds Olivia cuddled up with Reid downstairs under a cover, they say they were just talking but Molly has a feeling there was more there. Not to mention when she arrives at work Olivia is there buying a picture frame and Reid offers to walk her back to Molly’s house and out of spite Molly texts Will to hangout. Molly lets herself fall for once in her life she takes a chance and goes to kiss Will and feel butterflies but she is turned down and Will tells her he just wants to be friends and he knows he acts flirtatious but he didn’t mean to make her think he liked her and she forgave and and moved on. Until she made it home to find Olivia, Mina and Cassie working on her center pieces painting animals on them and her and Cassie have another blowout along with Molly confronting Reid which just upsets them both when Molly refuses to tell Reid how she really feels about him. When everything is broken and she has nowhere else to turn to she calls Abby who helps her find her true self and she comes to terms with the fact that she does like Reid. Finally she texts Reid and tells him that she needs to talk and he comes willingly and tells her that he likes her too and they kiss. Molly’s First actual kiss. Molly now knows that her and her twin must make their own ways now not completely but they each need to let each other go just a little bit to share them with the person they love now.

REVIEW

Okay so let me start with the fact that this book is not a book I would normally buy or read at like all but I received it in a book box so I gave it a try and I didn’t totally hate it. In fact I found that I like this book more than I thought I would. Now I am a person who loves fantasy! Why would I want to read a book based on today’s world when I live in it like I read to go to different places and get lost in the magic of other worlds, but this book did give me faith that not all non-fantasy books are a waste of time.

I relate to Molly, I was like Molly in school I had crushes(Not 27 of them) but I had a couple and I was always so worried about my weight and rejection that I would never take a chance, I knew I wasn’t the skinniest girl in school nor was I the heaviest but I was pretty heavy I remember a couple of boys and girls making fun of the stuff I wore so I would keep covered you know always wear a jacket or something it was like my armor it keeps you hidden. There was this one boy who tried his best though and never gave up no matter how many times I shyed away or tried to keep myself hidden he would find me and break though. That boy is still with me and still my best friend and he tells me everyday how beautiful I am even though I think I could still lose some weight and I still try to wear clothes that cover me up.

Now don’t get me wrong this book was boring at the start I put it down at least three times and was like I am not reading this. Then I broke and was like fine i’ll give it a chance and I can say i’m glad I did. If you like books about love and romance along with a quirky girl and crushes this is your cup of tea, but for someone who is all about action and fantasy I would recommend you save your money and check this book out from a library or borrow it from a friend because you will more and likely only read it once unless you fall in love with Molly and Reid.

Molly and Reid are the only reason I fell in love with this book to be honest, I just love how they acted around each other and the way they found love. I could careless about Cassie and Mina or Molly and Will. I also think Will should be shunned from the group like you were not being flirtatious Will you were leading a girl on! I do not care what he says he deserves to be shunned at least for a couple of days. I only kept reading this book because of Molly and Reid if they did not end up together I was going to burn this book.

Cassie and Mina were just so bland and plain, Mina was just a girl with some guy friends who I thought was kinda stuck up in a way telling Reid that his shoes were a turnoff, but maybe i’m reading too much into this. I wish Abby would have been into this a little more I feel like her character could have offered so much more to the story.

All and all there is not a very compelling story and no action at all but I feel like this book is worth a read if you like highschool love triangles with a relatable character. If you love fantasy and action I would say pass it up because there is none of either the most action you will get is two sisters fighting and I can get that at family gatherings, or on reality T.V.